Many modern vehicles include safety systems that are activated only when a passenger is present in the passenger seat (or in the rear seats). Further, many vehicles come with a warning system that provides an alert when the passenger side seat belt is not buckled if a person is present in the passenger seat.
These systems may rely on one or more sensors to provide information used to determine whether a seat is occupied. Traditionally, this may be done through the use of one or more pressure sensors in a bottom portion of the vehicle seats, which provide an indication of when a weight is present in the seat above a threshold. The vehicle can then display an alert or emit an audible signal to indicate that the seat is occupied and the seatbelt is unbuckled.